In advance of tomorrow's State of the City address, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sent a letter to the council today listing 3,546 positions he intends to cut out of next year's budget.

Most of those are vacant, but the list does include 750 filled positions that would be cut through layoffs or transfers. That's a pretty low bid compared to the 2,000-4,000 figure that had been thrown around a couple months ago.

The mayor's letter does not include the projected savings from these layoffs. The mayor's budget staffers have previously said that the vast majority of vacant positions are unfunded, which means you don't get any savings by cutting them.

“We will not know the salary savings until the process plays itself out,” says spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton.

Whatever the figure is, one can guess that it is not nearly enough to close a $485 million deficit.

The mayor says that the layoff list “only portrays a portion of the budget solutions I have relied upon to present a balanced budget for Fiscal Year 2010-11.”

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